Site search

Asset valuation is coming under greater scrutiny. It started with valuations used for calculating estate tax. IRS questioned valuation discounts used in many estates and was successful in many of these challenges.Then came the housing crash, the market crash and the mortgage security problems in 2006 and beyond. As a result, the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) is now looking harder at how illiquid investments in alternative funds are being valued.

Last week President Obama delivered his State of the Union address to the nation and introduced us all to a new type of retirement account, the myRA. Since then, the ins and outs of the new accounts have been minced and parsed in just about every way imaginable. Click to find out what some advisors are getting wrong about myRAs.

Last week President Obama delivered his State of the Union address to the nation and introduced us all to a new type of retirement account, the myRA. Since then, the ins and outs of the new accounts have been minced and parsed in just about every way imaginable. Click for more detail.

If you are an IRA owner who will be age 70 ½ or older this year, you should have received a notice from your IRA custodian telling you that you have a required minimum distribution (RMD) this year. They will also notify IRS on Form 5498 that you have an RMD. The letter to you should also tell you how much your RMD is for the year or offer to do the calculation for you. While you can generally rely on the calculation done by your IRA custodian, here are our 5 easy steps to be sure their calculation is correct.

Below we share with our readers the two videos as a continuation of yesterday's myRA coverage, which included our detailed analysis of the retirement plan proposal with videos and popular tweets incorporated.

So, did anything happen in President Barack Obama's State of the Union last night that we should be aware of? The President's new retirement plan proposal, called myRA, (rhymes with "IRA" when pronounced correctly - trust us, it's tough) drummed up a lot of discussion over water coolers and across the worldwide web last night and into this morning, including extremely active discussions on Twitter. So what does the proposal mean for advisors, investors and the present and future of retirement planning?

You’ll be receiving a copy of your 2013 IRS Form 1099-R, Distributions From Pensions, Annuities, Retirement or Profit-Sharing Plans, IRAs, Insurance Contracts, etc., if you took a distribution from your employer retirement plan or IRA last year. The employer plan or IRA custodian has to send you a copy by January 31, 2014. You’ll need to give your tax preparer a copy of it so that your retirement plan distributions are correctly reported on your federal income tax return.

The new version of IRS Publication 590, Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) for use in preparing 2013 tax returns, has been released by the IRS. It’s used by taxpayers and tax preparers when filing 2013 federal income tax returns.

We are starting to get asked whether or not there are required distributions from Roth 401(k), Roth 457(b), and Roth 403(b) accounts. The answer is – Yes. Following is our chart that compares some of the features of Roth IRAs, Roth 401(k)s, and 401(k)s.

This week's Slott Report Mailbag inquires about Roth IRA contribution eligibility, what to do when excess contribution penalties are delivered due to administrative error and the always-confusing 5-year rules for Roth IRAs.